Bruins 2-Goal 3rd Seals Defeat for Flyers

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

In the third game of the season, the Flyers defeated the Bruins with six goals. That was the second time in as many games they had reached that mark. Since then, scoring has been much more of a struggle and it showed once again on Saturday night.

The Bruins came out firing from the start and finally grabbed the lead late in the first. The Flyers rallied from two goals down to tie it in the second, but when the Bruins re-gained the lead, they never looked back.

Two goals in the third period extended the Boston lead to a 5-2 margin, the final from Wells Fargo Center as the Flyers closed out a three-game homestand.

The Bruins got off to a fast start, but the Flyers had the first man-advantage of the period. Their struggles continued, as they managed no shots on the power play.

The Bruins then got two straight power plays, including 12 seconds of 5-on-3 time. The Flyers managed to survive the push, keeping the game scoreless into the final minutes of the period.

Boston finally broke through on their 20th shot of the period. Anton Blidh won a battle behind the net and was able to get the puck in front to Tomas Nosek all alone. Nosek went to the backhand and scored to make it 1-0 Boston with 1:35 to play in the period.

Through 20 minutes, shots were 21-8 Boston.

It took the Bruins just 30 seconds to capitalize on a chance in the second. A point shot by Derek Forbort was deflected by Justin Braun and past Martin Jones, giving the Bruins a 2-0 lead.

Less than a minute later, the Flyers were on the board. A point shot by Rasmus Ristolainen was tipped by Claude Giroux and went behind the net. Cam Atkinson picked it up and put it into the crease, where Derick Brassard was able to go get it and score to make it a one-goal game at 1:22.

On a power play midway through the period, the Flyers finally struck and got the game tied. It was Brassard scoring again, burying one into a wide open net off a cross-ice feed from Giroux, evening things up at two.

The Flyers carried the momentum from the two goals throughout the period, getting more physical and winning more battles. But a lost battle and breakdown led to the Bruins getting the go-ahead goal before the period was over. Forbort struck again, picking his spot high over Jones to make it a 3-2 game with 3:33 left in the period. 

Through two periods, the Bruins had a 34-19 lead in shots.

Just 1:28 into the third, the Bruins were able to restore the two-goal lead. Craig Smith got the puck on a rush and used his speed to get through the neutral zone and around Travis Sanheim. He then beat Jones to the short side, making it a 4-2 game.

After having a power play nullified by a delay of game penalty for a face-off violation, the Bruins put the game away with a goal by David Pastrnak at 12:47, as he waited out Jones and made a nice move to get him out of position before scoring into an empty net.

Jones finished the game with 38 saves on 43 shots in the loss. Linus Ullmark stopped 29 of 31 shots in the win.

Forbort, Smith, Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk each finished with multi-point games. Giroux and Brassard had multi-point games for the Flyers.

The Flyers now hit the road for the next two games, starting a back-to-back on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• BOS Tomas Nosek (2) (Anton Blidh, Matt Grzelcyk) 18:25

2nd Period

• BOS Derek Forbort (3) (Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak) 0:30
• PHI Derick Brassard (3) (Cam Atkinson, Claude Giroux) 1:22
• PHI Brassard (4) PP (Giroux, Ivan Provorov) 9:25
• BOS Forbort (4) (Craig Smith, Jake DeBrusk) 16:27

3rd Period

• BOS Smith (1) (Erik Haula, DeBrusk) 1:28
• BOS Pastrnak (5) (Jakub Zboril, Charlie Coyle) 12:47

Game Statistics